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Harris's campaign finally receiving more than one hundred million dollars in donations since Sunday, as an unofficial AP tally shows her securing enough delegates for the Democratic nomination. Speaking at her campaign headquarters, Harris saying, I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party's nominee. I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon to
have that discussion now. I'm pleased to say that joining US Democratic Congressman Jake Chincloss of Massachusetts Congressman, great to catch up with you, sir. You've been a big supporter of the president. You weren't one of those that came
out and asked him to stand down. You were one of those who highlighted the success he's had his track record over the last three and a half years, Which makes me wonder how confused you might be that, given how good you think that track record has been, why people within your own party has forced him to step aside.
Good morning, Thanks for having me on. General elections are one or loss. The terms of the debate are set, and the terms of the debate previously with.
A president's age and acuity.
Now with Kamala Harris having taken the torch, the terms of the debate are the future versus the past, our rule of law versus the law of the ruler, Donald Trump's obsession with the grievances of the past versus the possibilities of a strong American economy.
These terms of debate, Democrats will win. Congressman, do you think he was appropriate though?
That The President told the American people through a letter, and we've yet to hear him address the American people. He's a sitting president. We haven't seen him since July seventeenth, and he has yet to give remarks to the nation about why he is stepping aside.
The President laid out his decision in a thoughtful and well crafted letter, and then he's going to address the nation this week, I believe, and I think he is going to do what he has always done, which is put the country's interest ahead of his own, which is a start contrast to what we have seen from Donald Trump, who, rather than see power, clung onto power in set it in an insurrection and cause the deaths of officers in the line of duty. That contrast will not be lost in the American public.
But at the moment, there's a lot of questions surrounding why we have yet to see him and decided to do this by through a letter. Is it your understanding that if he didn't drop out this weekend, more of your colleagues in Congress were going to become public with their concerns about his age and mental acuity.
I don't think conjecture about the past is particularly fruitful. Right now we have our nominee, it's Kamala Harris. I think the focus now is how do we sprint through the next one hundred days to win this election, because the contrast now is going to be on Democrats as the party of the rule of law, as Americans intuitively understand, without predictability, without law and order, we cannot thrive as an economy and as a civil society. The Republicans have
nominated a convicted felon. The Republicans are trying to surge guns onto our streets and in our schools. The Republicans are voting against bipartisan border security legislation. The Democrats of the ones that the American public can trust to uphold the rule of law and that will be the conversation.
Does this to you look like basically a coronation though? Of the vice president? The Wall Street Journal editorial board this morning talked about that the country's now losing the chance to see a genuine and instructive party debate unfold. She is winning by acclamation among all of the Democratic Party insiders and moneymen who've swung behind her.
How concerned are you.
That this looks like a coronation of vice president and not like a democratic process.
I like competition. I like competition in business. I like competition in politics, and I think the Democratic Party should not be afraid of it, and we should have an open and transparent process to.
Choose our next nominee.
But Kamala Harris can't help it. If everybody endorses her and she gets the majority of the delegates within the first twenty four hours and she sees a surge of base support, I mean, she's going to compete hard.
She said she was going to earn it and win it.
She's earned it, She's going to win the nomination, and now we have to make sure that she wins the general Congress.
But I think the way to put this together is there's this question of how can the Democrats be the party of democracy if they bet on a president to run again, and just months before the election date, he was pushed aside and somebody else was brought in. It raises questions about the Democrats view on the democratic process of election. How do you counter some of those real concerns that people have.
I think that's a flawed premise. I was here in the chamber on January sixth. I've seen what a coup looks like. What happened here was the Democratic Party is designed to win elections in order to effectuate policy that helps American voters. Joe Biden, through fourteen million voters, won the delegates. He then decided, I'm going to step aside. Those delegates were unbound. They were free to choose whomever they wanted to carry the torch, and they chose Kamala Harris.
That is exactly the way that delegates are supposed to happen under Democratic Party rules. Now voters are going to see a choice between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. They will have the final determination of whether they like that choice. And I am confident that since seventy percent of Americans previously said they wanted to change at the top of both tickets, and only Democrats have responded by actually doing it that they're going to choo Kamala Harris gotrishin.
There's also a lot of concern about what people don't know, and I think that that's what the debate really highlighted.
For a lot of people. What aren't we seeing.
About the state of the current president, who still has to rule until early next year, regardless of who wins the White House. At what point can you truly allay those concerns at a time when we haven't seen him and there is this fear that you know, it's something more that caused to withdraw than simply pressure that has been mounting for a while, and that he was pretty defiant in the face of well.
I mean, I know a few days as an eternity in the media, but we actually have seen him a lot over the last month. We saw him on the debate stage, we've seen him do one on one interviews, we've seen him at rallies, and most importantly, we've seen his track record over the last three and a half years. This president took an economy that was flat on its back, and we now have strong jobs and inflat numbers. This president has restored US global leadership. This president is protecting
civil rights and democracy at home. Americans can see the track record, and Americans like the policies. And that's what Kamala Harrison is going to be able to run on now, is we've put the age and acuity issue to bed. We have the policies front and center, we have a dynamic candidate, and we're going to win.
Congressman, you just said that they like the policies. Can you point to the polls where that really shows up.
Medicare, negotiation of drug prices, investing in infrastructure, the Chips and Science Act, a turbo charge or competition against China, Electoral count Act, reform to help close the January sixth loophole, Bipartisans Safer Communities Act that has helped push homicide.
That's a long list of fifty issues. You're right to point them out. That's been a successful part of the administration. But he was behind the polls to such an extent the leadership within your party pushed him off the ticket. Congressman, I just feel like this conversation at the moment feels like we're in two different realities. You just then appreciate it about the news cycle. Let me just finish up. I felt like that was needlessleep snarky, sir. This is
not about the news cycle. This is about the sitting president of the United States that chose to make one of the most consequential decisions of his career on Twitter on Sunday, and we've not really heard from him since. And I find out that you don't think that's strange.
It's Tuesday.
He issues a letter on Sunday. He's going to address the nation. He laid out his reasoning. This country, over the last two hundred and fifty years, has seen some of its most consequential moments described in print. There is nothing that's an affront to the American public about laying out,
in black and white text his reasoning. He will address the public, and most importantly, he has demonstrated to the public over the last and a half years that not only can he be president, but he can be a top ten president in American history.
So why isn't he running?
He isn't running because the concerns about his age and acuity are undermining his ability to beat Donald Trump and undermining the constituent's confidence that he can discharge.
The duties own that concerns that you'll colleagues have, correct, let's come from within your own party. That's not like some thing that's come from the media. It's officials. I've been very clear about sons or if they don't believe the policy is more important than his age.
I've just really struggled here.
You've come out a few times, and I've seen some of your comments previously, and we keep going back to this track record, the policies, the policies the last three and a half years. Don't you think if the public thought those policies were that good, we wouldn't be in this position to begin with.
No, because the public was focused on the president's age and acuity. We now have a different candidate at the top of the ticket, and elections are about the future, and what we are going to say to the American public is, look at what we have accomplished over the last four years. Let's take this forward as we debate tax policy in the next congress. Let's take this forward
as we debate immigration policy in the next congress. Let's take this forward as we debate reproductive freedom in the next Congress, and let's demonstrate that we can make this economy work for everybody. Let's demonstrate that we can continue to heal our democracy after the depredations of the trial administration.
And all Trump is going to be able to say is that same spew of grievances and self pitying and egocentric lamentations that we heard from his convention speech where he tried to go for twenty minutes and sound statesmen like and he couldn't get past.
Ten Congressman, if it's your own colleagues, the elder state's individuals, if you will, of your Democratic your leader's Pelosi Schumer, all these leaks, if they're the ones that are concerned about his age and mental acuity, then should the president step aside? How can the American people be confident that he can fulfill his duties for.
The rest of his term.
He absolutely should not step aside. This president is fully able to be commander and chief. We've seen him walk a tightrope in the Middle East, protecting the security of Israel while not allowing for a regional conflagration.
We've seen him rally NATO to Ukraine's side.
We've seen him bind together South Korea and Japan and the Philippines in Australia to help counter Chinese belligerents in the Indo Pacific. This president is a highly successful foreign policy president who is also implement memented monumental domestic policy legislation. He has demonstrated he can do the job. He's eighty one years old. Voters, he concerns about his ability to
do the job for four more years. Democrats listened. Democrats put forward a younger, dynamic candidate, and now the Republican Party is going to have to explain why they're not doing the same thing, because seventy percent of Americans wanted a difference at the top of both tickets, and Republicans responded with a mosh.
Pit in Milwaukee.
Congressmen appreciate the stern defense. Thank you, sir, Congressman Jake Arkincloss. There, I'm the latest out of Massachusetts, a stern defense of the President of the United States.